It was all written in notepad and this forum box over the course of two days or so.

ALSO! Just a P.S. in here. I would love to have separated this post with spoiler tags to make it slightly easier to read and stuff. But I can't do that here.

UNITY
(a d20 game)

Unity consists of three main character factors. Your Combat, Magic, and Guile. Each of those factors has 5 attributes associated with it as listed below.

Combat
-Action
-Defense
-Fighting
-Footwork
-Health

Magic
-Counter-Spell
-Destruction
-Mysticism
-Resistance
-Restoration

Guile
-Admin
-Lock Picking
-Perception
-Ranged
-Stealth

Each attribute has a scale from 0 to 3. 0 being completely untrained, and 3 representing a proficiency with the skill. You are of course invited to add your own Factors, Attributes, or Skill levels as you see fit. The idea behind Unity was that people would play with some of the bare bones of an RPG, and design the rules as they went along kind of like Calvinball. That is why there are no rules for levelling an attribute. Give them out when a player does good, or when they complete an adventure, or when they find some treasure. It doesn't matter, as long as its fun.

What each attribute does at each level is listed below.

Combat Attributes
-----------------

Action

[*=left]0: 20 to crit
[*=left]1: May attempt Disarm and Trip.
[*=left]2: 18-20 to crit.
[*=left]3: May counter a missed attack at you.

So, some of these are a little vague. Again, this is kind of intentional. Your own interpretation, your own method makes the rules. How you want to take things is up to you. That being said, I didn't leave everything up to you. There's some equipment and spells listed below to help guide you towards creating your own. You may be picking up a theme here...

The game is called UNITY because the goal is a unification of the players to make the game fun. The idea is to bring people together to create not just their own adventures, but their own game along with it. Like equipment, the spells listed below are a little empty. Hopefully you and your players will be able to come together and create new Destruction Specialties like Earth, Light, or Dark, and the spells to go with them. And hopefully, you'll post them here!

Bless Weapon
: Adds +2 to attack and damage.
: May be cast on target or self.
: Dispelled only after a hit.

One last note, this isn't about putting forth the minimum amount of work for any recognition. The idea is a large collaborative effort. To give everyone the opportunity to leave their mark. Think of how much content you can get for a game if everyone who's ever played it has contributed to it in some way.

-still to come are creatures and character sheets!-

Thriondel Half-Elven

06-14-2014, 11:44 PM

I like it! But, unless I missed it, I don't see how you do attacks. I see some of the attributes give you a bonus to melee or ranged. And some give you damage bonuses. And there is the weapon damage but I don't see how you attack.

Soft Serve

06-14-2014, 11:56 PM

1d20 vs. defense. Never mentioned d20 I guess. XD

Thriondel Half-Elven

06-15-2014, 12:11 AM

That makes sense.
I know the idea is for it to be vague but just curious. What would roll Stealth vs? or perception.

DMMike

06-15-2014, 01:33 AM

Good start. It looks like a skills-only system, which is cool. Did I overlook a part that says something like, "when you make a check, you add you attribute and skill bonuses to the roll?"

It needs some combat resolution rules too. Who attacks first? How many times does he get to attack? How many defense rolls can you make?

But look at me, focusing on combat. Better question: can I make my character a noble? Is Admin the only skill I can take for that? What if I want to play Joffrey Baratheon?

And how do I determine my starting factors? If there are 15 attributes, what are the skills?

Soft Serve

06-15-2014, 01:59 AM

That makes sense.
I know the idea is for it to be vague but just curious. What would roll Stealth vs? or perception.

I would say yes.

Good start. It looks like a skills-only system, which is cool. Did I overlook a part that says something like, "when you make a check, you add you attribute and skill bonuses to the roll?"

It needs some combat resolution rules too. Who attacks first? How many times does he get to attack? How many defense rolls can you make?

But look at me, focusing on combat. Better question: can I make my character a noble? Is Admin the only skill I can take for that? What if I want to play Joffrey Baratheon?

And how do I determine my starting factors? If there are 15 attributes, what are the skills?

All very valid. I'd like to hammer this all out together here if it doesn't bother anyone else, and I'll edit the post later with the result.

The attributes / skills are the same. When you've got Lock-Picking 3, you add +2 to Lock-Picking attempts on any type of lock.

There is a turn order reference in the Footwork section. To make of that what someone might. How actions or turns work COULD be important. XD

Defense is a static number, no rolls. Just rolls against it. But if you'd like to change it to opposed rolls, go for it.

Admin was included to make Unity fit for a modern setting (to apply to computers and stuff) but just as well applying to imperial seals and gates. It's all relative I suppose. Perhaps Admin can be changed to something better. A concept I scrapped was "Fast Talking" or the ability to basically talk circles around someone to get out of trouble. But I couldn't think of multiple levels for it. But I'm not entirely happy with Admin honestly, it doesn't really stack up well to the other Guile skilltributes.

jpatterson

06-15-2014, 03:44 AM

I like it overall. The 3 (4 counting 0) tier skill ranking will not sit well with some, but do seem to capture the gist of what is needed for each item. I think your example character and possibly an example of combat and another skill use or two would go a long way to helping present a concrete idea of this system.

Is there a certain Difficulty or Target Number for tasks or actions, are there opposed actions, etc?

I don't understand the spell and equipment sections. Are these things the GM and/or players make up, using the same character creation rules? What determines how many points or whatever an item gets, or costs, in order to make any of these, or what "tier" the magic spells are?

How would you do things like "Rope" which might add a bonus to climbing (or might be required in some cases and you get a penalty if you don't have it, like for mountains)?

Morashitar

06-15-2014, 07:47 AM

A great job! ;)

Soft Serve

06-15-2014, 02:16 PM

I like it overall. The 3 (4 counting 0) tier skill ranking will not sit well with some, but do seem to capture the gist of what is needed for each item. I think your example character and possibly an example of combat and another skill use or two would go a long way to helping present a concrete idea of this system.

True, I'll put that in the list of things to do when I get my brain together and edit this post again.

Is there a certain Difficulty or Target Number for tasks or actions, are there opposed actions, etc?

I'd leave it up to the people playing what the difficulty / appropriate skill is. As well as if it requires multiple successes or not.

I don't understand the spell and equipment sections. Are these things the GM and/or players make up, using the same character creation rules? What determines how many points or whatever an item gets, or costs, in order to make any of these, or what "tier" the magic spells are?

I'd imagine a character would just be equipped with Light Armor and a Large Club and they're set rather than narrowing it down further to Chain Armor and a Cudgel. So they don't have to be "Created" any more, but if someone wanted to actually list stats for Chain Armor and Axes and such, they could. I didn't put costs for items but there could be an average cost for games where there are economies and such. Honestly, when I wrote it, I think I had horror or apocalyptic settings in mind so shops would be few and far apart. If you think they'd be better off having base costs, then I can do that.

The only spells that had tiers were in the Destruction category and they're marked T1 and T2. That could change of course, restoration could develop Specialties (like Healing, Blessing, Protection, Hunting (for finding undead / demons) and so forth.)

How would you do things like "Rope" which might add a bonus to climbing (or might be required in some cases and you get a penalty if you don't have it, like for mountains)?

I'd probably put it somewhere in the adventure honestly. If it wasn't in the items, I'd make it. Or a climbing harness or grappling hook, or rope ladder. Something like that. Same with light sources like lanterns or torches. But, if you'd think there should be some "Standard Aventuring Equipment" listed rather than assumed, it can be done.

I just did the Two-page RPG contest on another forum and a lot of the ideas I scrapped I put together here. And that one was supposed to be the kind of game someone could pick up and play without ever playing RPGs before. This one assumes you have had a good amount of experience with them, since it came sort of out of my rejections and notes and frustration at simplifying for the uninitiated crowd.